1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telephone systems and, more particularly, to telephone authorization validation systems.
2. Related Art
In telephone communication systems, telephone calls are generally charged to the account of the originating telephone. In many situations, however, other billing methods are desired. For instance, a call originator may wish to place a collect call, where the receiving party, rather than the call originator, is billed for the call. A collect call may be desired where the call is for the primary benefit of the receiver or where the account associated with the receiving phone belongs to the originating caller himself Alternatively, an originating caller may wish to have a call charged to a third party telephone account or to a credit card account, such as a Local Exchange Card (LEC) offered by a local telephone company. Alternative billing schemes benefit users by providing more convenient methods of billing and benefit phone companies by increasing the number of revenue sources.
Because it is difficult to verify the identity of a user and because an account, although previously valid, may no longer be valid, there is a serious potential for abuse of alternative billing schemes. Because such fraudulent use of phone services results in lost revenue for phone companies, fraud is compensated for with higher rates to paying customers. It is important, therefore, to phone companies and paying customers, to insure against fraudulent use of alternative billing schemes.
In order to reduce fraudulent use of alternative billing schemes, some method must exist for validating the authority of a user to employ one of these alternative billing schemes in a collect call situation, for instance, a method must exist for verifying whether the receiving party or the account associated with the receiving telephone is properly authorized to accept a collect call. Such a verification might include insuring that the account associated with the receiving phone is current, that its bill paying history is adequate and that the account holder has not previously declared that collect calls will not be accepted. In the case of third party billing or credit card billing, a method must exist for verifying the existence of the credit account or of the third party to be billed and, possibly, for requesting authorization from the credit card company or the third party.
Currently, many phone companies employ Line Information Data Bases or LIDBs for validating authorizations. LIDBs are private data bases providing such services as Originating Line Number Screening, Calling Card Validation, Billing Number Screening, Calling Card Fraud and Public Telephone Checks. LIDBs typically contain all of the valid telephone and card numbers in their regions and the necessary information to perform billing validation. Upon receipt of authorization from a LIDB, the telephone company will place the call to the receiving party. Note that if the call is a collect call, the telephone company will have to receive authorization from the receiving party, in addition to the LIDB authorization. LIDBs are typically organized regionally as stand-alone systems. Efforts are under way, however, to integrate regional LIDBs into a larger entity.
In addition to LIDBs, Bad Number System (BNS) data bases are also employed for authorization validation. Essentially, a BNS is a telephone company internal data base for maintaining histories of user names, credit card numbers and phone numbers, especially those which have a history of failure to pay or a history of failure to receive LIDB approval. A BNS may also contain cross references between receivers who routinely decline to accept charges from particular originators. A BNS is typically employed as a pre-screen or filter which serves to terminate a requested call, based on bad prior history, prior to initiating a LIDB query.
In operation, upon receiving a request for an alternative billing scheme, a telephone company will attempt to validate authorization. The authorization process will usually begin with a local or internal BNS query. If BNS authorization is granted, the telephone system queries an external LIDB. If the LIDB grants authorization to make the requested alternative billing call, the phone system dials the requested number and waits for a response. If the response is a busy tone, the call is terminated. If the line is not busy but, after some predetermined number of rings, there is no answer, the phone system declares a time-out and terminates the call. If, however, an off-hook condition is detected, that is, if someone picks up the dialed telephone, then the call originator and the requested party are connected. In a collect call situation, of course, the parties are not connected until the requested party accepts the charges.
While LIDBs reduce losses associated with alternative billing schemes, they come with a heavy price. For every validation query, regardless of whether authorization is granted, the phone company is charged a query fee. For some telephone companies these query fees can run into the tens of millions of dollars per month. These costs are generally passed on to consumers in the form of higher rates for service.
One area of particular concern to telephone companies, with respect to LIDB costs, is collect-call only telephones. Collect-call-only telephones are telephones which are designed to make collect calls and no others. These phones are employed in order to avoid damage from any attempted theft of coins. These phones are most often employed in correctional facilities and high crime areas.
Briefly, collect-call-only telephones include a keypad and a telephone handset but no coin-receiving slots. These telephones are typically coupled to the phone network through an automated operator system which is designed to preclude direct voice contact between call originators and phone company employees. This is, in part, to avoid harassing comments and threats to live operators.
In operation, when an off-hook condition is detected on a collect-call-only telephone, the automated operator generates a message to the effect of, "please enter the requested number". After dialing the desired number, the automated operator prompts the originator to "please state your name." After providing name and requested telephone number, the originator waits while the automated operator seeks authorization to place the call. Again, authorization typically includes a local BNS data base search followed by a LIDB search. Upon receiving authorization, the automated operator dials the requested party. If the automated operator detects a busy signal the call is terminated. If the requested phone rings a predetermined number of times without answering, the automated operator declares a time-out and, again, the call is terminated. If, however, the automated operator detects an off-hook condition, it assumes that an individual has answered the phone and initiates a collect call message. The collect call message informs the receiver that a collect call has been requested and provides the name of the originator which was recorded at the initiation of the call. If the requested party indicates a willingness to accept the charges for the call, the originator and the requested party are connected for conversation.
The reason that phone companies are particularly concerned with correctional facility collect-call-only telephones is the high rate of prematurely terminated calls. Recall that, after LIDB validation authorization, there are still three cases in which a collect call may be prematurely terminated. These three conditions are a busy tone, a no answer time-out and a refusal to accept charges. Only if all of these hurdles are passed can a collect call be completed.
It is estimated that nearly sixty percent of all correctional facility collect calls are prematurely terminated after receiving LIDB authorization validation. Because each LIDB query is billable to the requesting phone company, and because a large number of collect calls from correctional facilities are prematurely terminated, a large number of LIDB charges are incurred without a subsequent billable event, i.e., completed telephone call. As a result, while telephone companies in general are subjected to substantial LIDB inquiry charges per billable event or completed call, telephone companies which serve correctional facilities are subjected to even greater LIDB charges per billable event. Although collect calls from correctional facilities are often subject to an initial fee of between two and three dollars at the outset of a call, these fees are generally destined for the correctional facility itself as a type of user-fee. These fees do not, therefore, offset the costs of unnecessary LIDB queries. As a result, charges for unnecessary LIDB queries are generally be passed on to the paying customers of the telephone companies in the form of higher rates.
A method and system is desired, therefore, which will substantially reduce or eliminate unnecessary LIDB queries related to alternative billing schemes and collect call schemes in particular.